Manhunt causes road closure, 4-hour search

Tuesday

Dec 5, 2017 at 12:01 AMDec 5, 2017 at 7:07 AM

The suspect was located by a canine unit, north of Poquito near the intersection with Lewis Turner Boulevard.

Staff report

FORT WALTON BEACH — A nearly four-hour search for a possibly armed man who fled into woods off General Bond Boulevard after being stopped by the Florida Highway Patrol ended shortly before 8 p.m. Monday with the suspect in custody, according to the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office.

Details of the circumstances that prompted the FHP traffic stop were not available at deadline Monday night, but the incident touched off an intensive hunt for the man, described as a 6-foot-5 black male with gold teeth, wearing a black or red shirt and blue jeans. The search prompted law enforcement officials to close General Bond Boulevard from Eglin Parkway to Lewis Turner Boulevard.

As of press time, there was no indication as to whether a weapon had been recovered.

The Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office sent out a message at 8:17 p.m. that General Bond Boulevard had been reopened to traffic. That message came about a half-hour after scanner traffic indicated that the suspect had been taken into custody.

Tracking dogs from the Okaloosa Correctional Institute, along with an Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office K9 unit, assisted in the search, and a Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission helicopter also aided the effort to find the man. He was finally located by a canine unit, north of Poquito near the intersection with Lewis Turner Boulevard, according to a post on the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office Facebook page. He was taken into custody without further incident, according to the sheriff's office.

According to police scanner traffic, the man's clothes were recovered separately from the man himself.

In addition to FHP, the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office and the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, the successful search for the suspect also involved the Walton County Sheriff's Office. Eglin Air Force Base security personnel were also involved in the search, because the suspect had fled onto the Eglin reservation.